IMP.「CRUISIN’」
The former Johnny’s & Associates trainee (or “Junior”) unit formerly called Impactors made their official debut this week as simply IMP. with a perfectly serviceable J-Pop boy group song called 「CRUISIN’」. The twist is that they aren’t debuting as part of Johnny’s & Associates but under a new company, TOBE (pronounced like the English phrase “to be”).
TOBE was started by former Johnny’s & Associates idol-turned-executive Takizawa Hideaki. You may remember him from my episode on SixTones vs Snow Man. The short version is that Takizawa was trained up by Johnny Kitagawa himself and really, ever since I became aware of him—Hello, 魔女の条件—he’s been known as “King of the Juniors.” Always self-motivated, Takizawa worked hard within the Johnny’s framework to build a small empire of his own under that Junior umbrella. He had his own annual stage play, which he used to showcase up and coming Juniors and Junior groups and, for a while, his Junior-focused Taki-Channel was the only place you could (legally) watch content from Johnny’s talents online. And when his performance unit with (now-ex) Johnny’s talent Tsubasa was finally disbanded in 2018, he moved into the Johnny’s & Associates executive suite and was instrumental in debuting the new top acts at Johnny’s (SixTones and Snow Man) before stepping down in November 2022 and spending time posting lava videos and NFT schemes to Twitter/X before announcing his own company: TOBE.
The new talents at TOBE are some very familiar faces to Johnny’s & Associates fans—ex-V6 member Miyake Ken, ex-King & Prince members Hirano Sho and Jinguji Yuta, and now the ex-Junior unit now called IMP.
In some ways, TOBE feels like a natural home for a group like IMP. From what I’d seen, the ex-Impactors were being molded in the shape of Snow Man, a group that had been personally picked and guided by Takizawa himself as his personal backing dancers. The then-Impactors even appeared as the highlighted backing group for the Snow Man-led Takizawa Kabuki Zero. It’s not such a huge leap from the pink spangly stage costumes of 「ひらりと桜」to the pink spangly stage costumes of 「CRUISIN’」.
I do wonder if now-IMP. had read the writing on the wall when Takizawa left, realizing they’d have a much tougher time of it under current vice president ex-V6 member Inohara Yoshihiko. Nothing personal (I’m assuming) but more that you can’t have a stagy Takizawa-styled performance group without Takizawa providing opportunities for them to showcase those Takizawa-inspired skills, opportunities like Takizawa Kabuki.
But on the other hand, something I’ve been thinking about a lot as I’ve been researching and writing on the TVXQ lawsuit and aftermath is this question: can an idol function outside of the ecosystem they grew up in? It’s something I’ve watched 7ORDER (formerly Love Tune) struggle with. The group had been a popular Junior unit but grew frustrated without debut on the horizon and left Johnny’s & Associates as a unit, reforming under a new company to… moderate success.
I’ve always had a soft spot for 7ORDER member Nagatsuma Reo for spotting my uchiwa in the crowd and giving me fan service during an A.B.C-Z concert they were the backing dancers for, so I’ve kept an eye on their progress. Their struggles are not so much about black listing (although I’m not saying that’s not a factor) but I think the bigger hurdle has been the removal of the idol group from the Johnny’s ecosystem.
In the Johnny’s ecosystem are the myriad stage plays that provide opportunities for young talents to hone their skills and draw fans: not just Takizawa Kabuki but Dream Boys, ABC座, Johnny’s World, SHOCK, etc. along with the chance to slip in alongside a senior Johnny’s talent in a non-Johnny’s musical. e.g. I once saw Junior Teranishi Takuto with (my favorite idol of all time) A.B.C-Z’s Kawai Fumito in a non-Johnny’s musical; it’s a common practice. There are copious opportunities to back dance for senior groups in concert and on television, to slide in alongside senior Johnny’s talents in television dramas and variety shows, get plucked for Johnny’s & Associates trainee dramas (that’s how SixTones got their start), as well as the monthly Junior-focused program Shonen Club and the massive publishing ecosystem that is Johnny’s & Associates-focused idol magazines like Stage Square, POPORO, and so on. Fans can easily learn the new trainees and become fans thanks to this ecosystem and it gives the idols within it some sort of context to work with.
Graduating from the Junior world is hard enough for groups debuting within Johnny’s & Associates. At least they still have these support structures to rely on for a time. Many newly debuted acts will still function within this Johnny’s world—i.e. Kishi Yuta (now ex-King & Prince) was in Dream Boys as recently as 2020 and King & Prince debuted in 2018.
Debuting without that ecosystem… without the stage plays, the support from senior idols, the media coverage… it’s an even harder road for an idol group, no matter how many fans they can bring with them. As a Johnny’s group, the ex-Impactors had a place in that ecosystem. The members interacted with members from other Junior units as well as with their seniors, placing them in a framework. They weren’t just some group of guys but Snow Man’s junior group. It’s a hook; an identity. The idol field is extremely crowded and, as I’ve said on here before, “Hey, that’s Snow Man’s junior group” is a bigger hook for a non-fan than “Hey, it’s one of a billion idol groups I know nothing about and whose name will float in one ear and out the other.”
Where I think IMP. has the advantage over a group trying to make it alone like 7ORDER is that IMP., rather than leaping into a vacuum, are joining a new ecosystem, the TOBE ecosystem. It’s a small ecosystem right now but it does feel like Takizawa understands that you can’t just have idols alone in a vacuum. Bringing on Miyake Ken and the duo of Hirano Sho/Jinguji Yuta gives a bit of context to IMP. They’ll have seniors to interact with—seniors that they have already established ties to (i.e. the then-Impactors back danced with Snow Man in various performances of the Miyake Ken-Takizawa Hideaki sub-unit KEN☆Tackey.) It will remain to be seen if IMP. member Arata Sato will be able to continue his acting momentum without the backing of Johnny’s & Associates but I wish him (and all of IMP.) the best of the luck!